It has become apparent to me that the MCAT Verbal is a quite perplexing portion of the MCAT, indeed the first time I took the test I made a 5 (Practice thank god). But knowing what I know about tests, I began to analyze the intrinsic qualities of the test, for no test truly tests what it says it test, unless you don't understand how it test that (try saying that 5 times fast). I spent the next 3 months studying the MCAT, with focus on the Verbal, and ended up with a 12. I have since worked as a verbal and physics teacher for both Kaplan and TPR, which has further molded my understanding on the topic. I'm not saying I'm the god of all things MCAT, however I have seen alot of it in my day.

It is my claim that anyone can increase their score (on all parts, but verbal especially) by merely understanding a few things about the test, and stategy on how to take it.

Thus as a public service (and a distraction from more important tasks) I present:
Mike's guide to the verbal MCAT:

First let's begin with how the verbal is roughly organized.
-9 passages (they claim some have 10 but I've never seen or heard of one with 10)
-about 7 reading comp questions over each passage
-65 total questions
-77 minutes to complete it
-1st thing in the morning (someone needs to die for that logistical choice)

The first and most important Rule is

FINISH AT ALL COSTS

This does not mean random guessing per se, however, if thats what it end up being at first so be it. As you become more confortable with the test guessing will become unnecessary. The major thing here is, no one question is important enough to keep from finishing.

Why is finishing so important
To earn a 12 on the verbal one must get around 60-62 questions right depending on the test. If you miss an entire passage you start at an 11 right off the bat

Also as we will see later, if you spend too much time thinking about this stuff you are almost definitely doing it wrong

But mike, I know the rules of taking tests, but still I can't finish

This is where strategy comes in:
NEVER, EVER EVER DO THE PASSAGES IN ORDER

The reason for this is the Bell Curve
In order for the MCAT to be considered a statistically valid test, it must fulfill 3 basic criteria
#1- It must provide some form of differentiation (ie some kids have to get 15's and others 5's)
#2- It must provide some logical criteria for why a 12 is better than a 5
#3- People who earn 12's on one test should earn similiar scores on future tests, assuming no changes are made (consistency)

Thus in order to meet these standards, every verbal test must have both easy and hard passages, in predictable numbers and patterns, and this leads to an advantage on your part.
Every MCAT I have taken, has had the following breakdown (in my opinion)
4-Easy Straightforward
3-Mildly difficult
1-Relatively difficult, requires some thought
1-Would anger Jacques Derrida (very difficult)
The strategy here is to figure out which is which, and to do them in order of increasing difficulty, thus leaving yourself more time to finish the harder ones
This leads us to the problem of discerning which is which, to determine this I provide a another classification scheme for these passages
3-Natural sciences
3-Social sciences(poli sci,psych,soci,anthro)
3- Humanities- (english, history, philosophy)

The Natural science passages are among the easiest ones without exception, all are straight forward, and involve topics we are all atleast somewhat familiar with. I always find these and do these first.

The social sciences are a mixed bag, some are rather easy, others can be difficult, but they are never the worst passage

The humanities tend to occupy both of the hardest two slots, and at the very least the worst passage on the test is always in this group (philosophy being the most common, english lit the second. The reason for this is 3 fold
1) Science majors (a majority of kids taking the test) hate these passages and thus
2) Being a humanities major myself, I can testify that there is no end to the number of people contributing to the library of passages made unreadable by the authors attempt to prove their own intelligence
3) the passages tend to use rather large words without a definite need for these words, and thus tend to perplex and scare people at 9 in the morning
To deal with this aspect of the test, I devised what I termed the 4 pass system. This involves going through the test 4 times, looking for and doing passages of increasing difficulty in order to score the easy points early and to gain a lead for the tough ones
Pass 1-Nail all natural sciences, and any social science passage that is OBVIOUSLY an easy one (about 4-5 in this pass)
Pass 2- Nail anything that after glancing through one paragraph, you know the main idea...the key is to not be afraid to recognize that you are reading a tough one early, and to drop what your doing and move on
pass 3- Finish all but the worst passage
Pass 4- hold on for dear life, score as many points as possible near the end

How to spot bad passages- Generally they are obvious, for they use large words, that though you may know the meaning, you have to dig them up from your memory bank, for they are not typically on MSNBC on a daily basis. Rule of thumb, if you read the first paragraph and really haven't a clue what the author is saying, move on

How to read...MCAT Style
there are only three things you want out of an MCAT passage...period
1) What the Author is talking about
2) What the authors overall opinion on this topic is (there is almost always an opinion somewhere)
3) What kind of information is located in each paragraph, in case you have to look something up

To find this info Read the first and last paragraphs. If at this point you do not know #1 and #2 repeat, and if necessary read the 2nd paragraph. Then SKIM the following paragraphs to find what is in which paragraph. and head to the questions
On the surface this would seem to be a bad way to read an argument,to essentially ignore all the backing for the claim of the paragraph, but this is the MCAT and not the real world and the method to this madness will become clear when we analyze the type of questions asked on the MCAT

Contrary to what is empirically obvious, the MCAT only asks two types of questions (these are my names for them), and they must be approached entirely differently
1) Find the fact
2) Touchy Feely

1) Find the fact-
These questions require you to answer a question based entirely on what is said in the passage (or a reasonable approximation of such) these tend to be the more straightforward and unfortunately for many less frequent. This is where your skim comes in: When prompted to find a fact, go to the area where the information is located and put the answer most similiar to what is stated in the passage, often times it will ask you to find out what type of evidence is or isnt located in the passage. I hope I don't have to continue stating the obvious, but I need to describe this in order to contrast it with the technique for #2
2) Touchy feely- These are the Harder questions, the more frequent, but once you know what your doing, they are the quickest questions
It is key that you first know the authors opinion on the topic for your entire stategy will hinge on this opinion
second one must know what questions qualify for this category in order to know when to use the technique
there are two types
1) Direct main idea questions- where the question explicitly asks for the passage's main idea
2) Ones with "touchy feely" key words in the question- these words include Probably, most likely, can be inferred, the author would most likely say....basically any question where it does not ask you to explicitly look for something in the passage, and which uses vague, indirect language

Here is the corner stone of your MCAT verbal attack
The STUPIDITY MANUEVER
This Idea came to me while analyzing practice tests, to determine why I was missing the questions that I was. The questions I was missing were mainly of the second type, and after some thought, I decided to take an entire verbal test where I always answered the touchy feely questions with the most obvious answer (the gut answer). This was the first time I ever scored in the double digits
From this I concluded that on these questions I had been talking myself out of the right answers using a complex set of reasons based on factual evidence in the passage (like any good bright person would) and was talking myself out of the right obvious answer hence the following rule
THE OBVIOUS ANSWER IS RIGHT ABOUT 90-95% OF THE TIME...STUPIDITY RULES THE MCAT, IF YOU HAVE TO SPEND A LONG TIME JUSTIFYING ONE ANSWER OVER ANOTHER, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG
Blanket stupidity is of course not that way to go,but the following algorhithm took me far
1) Find the authors opinion (ie Beer is good)
2) Identify any questions which qualify as touchy feely (this is an art form) (ie what is the authors opinion on breweries near high schools)
3) look at the answers and eliminate any answers which either directly conflict with the authors opinion, or have nothing to do with that opinion (ie beer is bad or we should not sell cigarrettes to children)
4) when in doubt narrowing down the rest,follow these rules
-the more general answers tend to be right on these
-Go with the gut

a small number of these questions do not conform to these (usually they happen in the bad 2 passages), experience will teach you how to spot these

Finally a word on the I, II,III questions
a simple algorhythm for these
1) look at the I,II,III part (the real answers) and eliminate all obviously wrong ones
2) go to the answer choices and eliminate any ones affected by #1, then find out which answer (I, II Or III) is located in the most of the remaining choices
3) test the validity of that answer in the passage or if a touchy feely one go with the gut
4) repeat till other answers are eliminated

One final word, buy any practice thing from TPR AND KAPLAN YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON, PRACTICE IS IMPORTANT AND BUY EVERYTHING FROM AAMC....NOTHING BEATS THE REAL TEST AS FAR AS ACCURACY
information on purchasing the AAMC stuff is on the back of the booklet included in the mcat registration packet

I would be willing to cover other sections if requested and any ?'s can be directed to Msughrue@hotmail.com

EXCELLENT advice, Mike. Do you think the "gut feeling" thing is true with the sciences, too? Ah, I'm just glad I never have to take the bloody thing again!

As a post-bacc who's tackling the science requirements and studying for the MCAT and working, I was thrilled to read your post. So often I read posts that serve one person or a singular interest. Yours was a motivator and I think useful information. I'll be taking the MCAT next April in Munich Germany and am glad to get the wicked verbal done earlier. I'll definitely tip a cold one in a German Beer Hall when I'm done.

Thanks again for the advice...

Karen

for the writing sample (i got an R, O or better is fine) they are looking for a simple formula:

it should be 3 paragraphs, ~1.5 pages

the first paragraph supports the statement using an example: personal, literary or current events.

the 2nd paragraph counters the statement, using an example against it.

the 3rd paragraph ties them together and you give and support your view.

1, 2, 3 it is a snap!

MikeS

Thanks for your analytical analysis of the verbal section. I think that you are right. There is definetly a pattern in the MCAT.

One other observation. I think that the answers are designed to "trick" your memory of the passage so for the specific detail, or "find a fact" question you need to refer back to the passage to get the right answer. It also seems to help to eliminate the "trick" answers.

Whatever you do DONT PANIC! That is what the test designers are counting on.

Thanks again.

MikeS78 , Thankyou for decoding the impossible. I absolutely detaste the thought of those passages http://www.studentdoctor.net/bbs/frown.gif . But with your technique it seems achievable.I would love to hear more of your problem solving skills. http://www.studentdoctor.net/bbs/smile.gif
Thanks a lot. http://www.studentdoctor.net/bbs/smile.gif

Also, I have found that in the Natural Sciences passages bringing information that you may know from your science courses only HURTS you. If the passage says Hydrogen gas is monatomic, then regardless of what you know, pick the answer choice that agrees with the passage! Many times I found myself choosing answers that were beyond the scope of the passage (the bastards include answers that anyone who has taken advanced science courses would know). Don't bring in outside knowledge, the passage is your ONLY source of information! Hope this helps, it was hurting me initially (at least 5-10 questions each time). Good luck to everyone who's taking the August MCAT, I'll be joining you guys as well!

-imtiaz

Good Advice! I can now look back and laugh at the MCAT bitch. I got accepted. As far as I am concerned, MCAT is the mother of all standardized tests. Its like being in labor for 8 hours with no pain meds. Good luck to all who are going in to face the beast!!!

"don't bring in outside knowledge"

that's easy for me. :D

Hey guys,

Thanks for posting this thread again--I saw it during the winter but didn't send it to my friends as I planned. I think it really is the best advice you can give to someone struggling with the MCAT verbal section.

So I am totally sending it to my crew for the August test!!!

Peace ;)

Yo Wsingh,

wuz up??? I recognized the Punjabi last name and thought I would send out a shout. Congrats on getting into med school--it's gonna be great!!!! :D

Where are you going?

Thanks for the advice. I would like to hear your take on the PS and BS as well. I'm sure lots of other people would as well :eek: :p

Originally posted by Amy Beth:
<STRONG>Thanks for the advice. I would like to hear your take on the PS and BS as well. I'm sure lots of other people would as well :eek: :p</STRONG>

Check the date on the original post. Mike does not post regularly anymore, I'm not sure why. You may get a response, you may not; just a warning.

Eric

i do post occasionally, however between the end of first year, and this summer's research internship at MSK I just don't have as much spare time, how ever I will write up something about ps/bs some time soon.....prob while running a gel or waiting for virus to grow

mike

I used mostly the same strategies Mike suggests and scored from 10-12 on the practice tests (Kaplan and AAMC) and an 11 on the real deal.

Although I only got 10's on the PS/BS I used similar strategies. Definitely use "The Force" and your gut.

Spang

Originally posted by MikeS 78:
<STRONG>i do post occasionally, however between the end of first year, and this summer's research internship at MSK I just don't have as much spare time, how ever I will write up something about ps/bs some time soon.....prob while running a gel or waiting for virus to grow

mike</STRONG>

Good to hear from you Mike. I had wondered what became of you. I have been recommending this thread to all the people asking about the verbal section. Have fun watching viruses grow.

Eric

I wanted to bump this up for our Aug MCAT Kiddies.

so..BUMP

one small correction to an otherwise awesome post.

&lt;you have 85, not 77 minutes to finish the verbal section&gt;

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Tweetie_bird:
<strong>I wanted to bump this up for our Aug MCAT Kiddies.

so..BUMP</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thx!

TWEETIE: You are awesome! Thanks for the bump... this is the best post I have seen here.

If you weren't the moderator already, I'd nominate you for it!

<img border="0" alt="[Laughy]" title="" src="graemlins/laughy.gif" /> Thanks Mudd!! :) It's good to know our efforts are appreciated.

I remember when I first joined sdn, mike always had some good advice...thanks for the bump (and the old memories...) some people didn't like him cause they thought he was too cocky...

great information! LOL

I think someone asked for this thread - up to the top you go :)

Just bumping this one up so it doesn't disappear.

Mike, I think that's good advice for the verbal section however I took TPR and they would always tell us accuracy over speed. Perhaps, you are naturally a fast reader but for those whose reading speed is not as quick, it would be bad to finish the whole thing since they would most likely be missing alot per passage. For instance, if a person does 7 passages missing one question per passage, that would be on average around 42 correct with 7 questions per passage. Since, each letter is represented an approximately equal amount of time, it is fair to say that guessing one letter for the next 2 passages that have 14 questions altogether will give you about 4 to 5 more right with a total of around 47 correct give or a take a point. If you happen to miss none on some of the 7 passages you did, that would improve your score further giving you basically a score of 9 to 10 which I would say is a good score on the verbal section.
On the the other hand, for the average reader going faster will inevitably cause you to lose accuracy. Say you were to finish all 9 passages but because you rushed you missed on average 3 per passage. This would give you a total of 38 correct, which is about a score of 7. In other words, it all depends on speed as well as accuracy. For those average readers, I would say it is better to take your time and really do well on 7 passages rather than rushing and doing 9 because mathematically you would probably get a better score even though on the surface it wouldn't seem so. Of course if you were able to finish 9 passages with great accuracy you will score higher, but for some people that just is difficult to do.

bumpperoo, excellent information!

bumping this guy up for those prepping for april 2003 :D

Great Thread and DW thanks for bumping it

Bumping this puppy up due to the infux of questions about the Verbal section.

bump

This advice seems to totally contradict what EK says. And really, I don't see the point of skipping around passages. For starters, it takes time to actually determine what passages are easy and hard. That's time that could be used to answer questions. Also, Mike makes a point in stressing how important it is to read every passage and answer every question. This is good advice because everyone knows an 11 cannot be obtained with a passage skipped. But how does he reconcile giving that advice and then telling test takers to find the easiest passages to do first? He already told them they needed to do every passage, so why does it matter if you do the easy ones first or last? You're going to have to do them all anyways.

meanderson, it matters because a lot of us need to warm up when taking the verbal. We usually aren't in total concentration at the beginning of the test and its nice to get into the groove of doing the verbal with the easy passages as opposed to the impossible ones. Once you get in the mood of taking the verbal, then you'll be ready to tackle the harder ones. Plus, if you get behind, you want to guess on the impossible passage as opposed to an easy passage.

First of all you will not know which are easy or hard based on reading a few lines. Sometimes the easier questions came with the most obtuse passages and you could get all of them correct. To get 11's on any section of the MCAT you *must* read all passages and attempt to give your best answer to every single freaking question period. Going on a hunting expedition will be of no use, you loose precious minutes by doing this....

I hate the MCAT

If I ever find the sick sons of bitches who write those humanities passages, i will.......

i mean, who the F*CK can ramble on and on for 6 paragraphs about the difference between intuitionism versus unisomethingism

sh*t i dont even remember that word any more


thank god i aint takin that sumbitch again!

peace out my nizzles

the HIIC

sexy post

Mike, GREAT post. I know it's a little dated but i'm sure the strategies you explained still work. I guess i'll have to wait to find out next april/aug.

Still waiting for those strategies for ps/bs.

Thanks.
Corey.

Dman, I gotta say that Mike rocks. I was sort of doing my third EK 101 passage half-heartedly cause it was on my schedule of things to do today and I sort of remembered Mike's advice to pick the easiest choice. So, lacking the energy to put as much energy as i did into the first two tests i took i said what the heck, I'll just choose the stupidest answer that comes to mind - dang it if its wrong. And holy crap, i not only finished with 10 min to spare I totally aced that test.

Use as few brain cells as possible. Choose the stupidest answer. I was thinking. And Mike was right. It works. At least on EK #3. lol

Makes me think what all that wasted effort went to on my first two crappy ek 101 tests.

Somebody referred to this in another post. It's fantastic verbal advice.

So, bumpity, bump. Read Mike's advice.

I used Mike's advice on reading the first and last paragraphs and skimming the rest...it saves a lot of time.

However, I dont understand how "stupidity" works because I eliminated the choices that are not supported by the passage...

Okay, well I must be the odd one. This method does not work for me at all. I get between 10 and 12 with reading the whole passage. I used this method for 3 passages and missed half of the questions. It just does not make any sense why you would not want to read the whole passage when the questions require an overall understanding of the whole passage, which I do not think you can always get from 2 paragraphs.

Am I the only one?

well this method will help you pace urself. If you can read the entire passage and understand it in about 2 and a half minutes, then you are in fine shape.

I am currently practicing "rapid reading" skills with the NY times...so Mikes method is working for me. Once I become a sprinter in reading the passages, I will not skim them.

I found the part about categorizing passages based on difficulty to be incredibly useful as timing is my weak point. I also found the bit about choosing the stupid answer on "touchy feely" questions to be pretty accurate.

your strategy is crap, yet I'm posting to bump up this thread so more of my competiion will waste their time doing 4 reads of the verbal section, spending precious moments of their brain fully functioning on "mapping out" the section.... which passage where/ how hard?/ trecherous humanity or easy science/long or short....

why such a focus on the "section" (bellcurve normalized standardization to the (n+5th india discovered zero))-what counts is the questions and answers... for this I recommend EK. You'll find a RELEVANT strategy that proves why to focus on the questions and answers even Without the passages!! If you find this ridiculous you should buy their verbal strategy book and look at what they've done with questions from a real MCAT passage.

Originally posted by ssman
your strategy is crap, yet I'm posting to bump up this thread so more of my competiion will waste their time doing 4 reads of the verbal section, spending precious moments of their brain fully functioning on "mapping out" the section.... which passage where/ how hard?/ trecherous humanity or easy science/long or short....

why such a focus on the "section" (bellcurve normalized standardization to the (n+5th india discovered zero))-what counts is the questions and answers... for this I recommend EK. You'll find a RELEVANT strategy that proves why to focus on the questions and answers even Without the passages!! If you find this ridiculous you should buy their verbal strategy book and look at what they've done with questions from a real MCAT passage.

my score went from 10 on 3R to 13-15 on 4R via this method....

wow works like magic. It's proven true. You've got a pagelength strategy that can move someone's score into the top percentile. this is more valuable than selling rights to a 100% wank-inducing porn. Anyone with half a brain would delay their medical studies and persue the financial prospects of this..even if it ends in dirty-charity hands. Do I hear a challenger to the Kaplan method? How much dollar did TPR stock lose?
If you're looking for a reliable, affluent partner please PM me (strictly business please... none of the "touchy feely" you're fond of)

Originally posted by ssman
wow works like magic. It's proven true. You've got a pagelength strategy that can move someone's score into the top percentile. this is more valuable than selling rights to a 100% wank-inducing porn. Anyone with half a brain would delay their medical studies and persue the financial prospects of this..even if it ends in dirty-charity hands. Do I hear a challenger to the Kaplan method? How much dollar did TPR stock lose?
If you're looking for a reliable, affluent partner please PM me (strictly business please... none of the "touchy feely" you're fond of) :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I have to say that after looking at this method and at the EK method I have been studying, there aren't THAT many differences.

The main differences seems to be the reading of the passage which would also seem to really only make differences when one has timing difficulties as cerebus did. I don't really think it matters how you get your timing as long as you get it (as in Cerebus's case).

But both methods seem to emphasize the "main idea" idea and the author's opinion. I really believe that the method posted here (other than the reading method, is just a general form of EK's method. EK's verbal in which they show how to answer questions based on stems and how the relate to the author is well laid out no doubt. However, the only way it becomes releveant is IF AND ONLY IF you practice it quite effectively. I think that the method posted is quite similar......it's just not as specificlly laid out as EK.

In the end, I think both methods would work (I'm doing EK), but either way, PRACTICE is most likely the only thing that will make either work effectively.

I can only take Cerebus's word in that this method worked.

Just my 2cents.

~ Zep

Trust ek where it differs from this advice.

Wow, your strategy sound very similar to kaplan, or maybe their strategy sounds similar to yours!!!!!!!!

bump

some great advice, some iffy advice

do what works best for you

i thought most of it sounded really good. i've posted this link a few times but i guess bumping it makes the most sense.

does anyone know what this guy Mike got on his MCAT using this advice...??

does anyone know what this guy Mike got on his MCAT using this advice...??

"I spent the next 3 months studying the MCAT, with focus on the Verbal, and ended up with a 12."

bump

I used this on my last kaplan full length...I started doing the verbal section and during the test I was like hmmm I remember that thread about the four passes...so I decided to try it for myself.

Did all the science passages first...then all the mildly difficults, and found the famed jacques derrida passage and laughed to myself. But yeah....I went up 3 points to an 11 ;0

I might just stick with this method since its pretty much similar to everything else, but some of the small differences I really like (for example the four passes --> they dont take that long)

For some reason this thead won't die. As JD (a former student of mine) opined when he bumped it last year, the original post has some good stuff, and some bad stuff. However, I disagree with him about doing "what works best for you."

In my opinion, a lot of what the OP is suggesting will result in short-term gains but will not be optimal in the long run. In particular, the emphasis on the obvious answer is scary -- it will kill you on certain types of questions on average passages. On these, you will have to be very careful. On the other hand, his emphasis on reading for nothing but the passage's main idea, general tone, and structure, rather than details, is good solid advice (and, as others have pointed out, not original advice: others say it's from Kaplan; sure looks like TPR's MAPS to me; regardless, it's good stuff). Because of this, many people will see immediate gains when they try to follow the listed advice (because they have been reading too carefully before, to the detriment of both accuracy and speed).

But that immediate gain may not be followed by continued improvement unless you supplement with a lot of serious deconstruction of every question you ever miss. How could you have seen it? How was it written in order to trap you? That takes dedication, and an attention to detail that I believe the OP underemphasizes. Unfortunately, it may seem that all you need to do is keep practicing; after all, you're improving so quickly, right? However, the question is not what changes have worked for you so far, but what changes in the future will improve your score in the future (unless you're happy with where you are now). The answers to these two questions may be different. In some cases, backtracking may be necessary: those short-term gains may have come from proceeding down a cul-de-sac. That's hard to judge, but you have to recognize the possibility.

If you have no other help, starting from the strategy discussed herein is fine but you need to dive into question details to do really well. If you have other help (i.e., you are in someone's course), then follow the advice of your teachers. Even when it doesn't seem to be helping (yet) -- it will, and is likely to be best in the long run.

For some reason this thead won't die. As JD (a former student of mine) opined when he bumped it last year, the original post has some good stuff, and some bad stuff. However, I disagree with him about doing "what works best for you."

In my opinion, a lot of what the OP is suggesting will result in short-term gains but will not be optimal in the long run. In particular, the emphasis on the obvious answer is scary -- it will kill you on certain types of questions on average passages. On these, you will have to be very careful. On the other hand, his emphasis on reading for nothing but the passage's main idea, general tone, and structure, rather than details, is good solid advice (and, as others have pointed out, not original advice: others say it's from Kaplan; sure looks like TPR's MAPS to me; regardless, it's good stuff). Because of this, many people will see immediate gains when they try to follow the listed advice (because they have been reading too carefully before, to the detriment of both accuracy and speed).

But that immediate gain may not be followed by continued improvement unless you supplement with a lot of serious deconstruction of every question you ever miss. How could you have seen it? How was it written in order to trap you? That takes dedication, and an attention to detail that I believe the OP underemphasizes. Unfortunately, it may seem that all you need to do is keep practicing; after all, you're improving so quickly, right? However, the question is not what changes have worked for you so far, but what changes in the future will improve your score in the future (unless you're happy with where you are now). The answers to these two questions may be different. In some cases, backtracking may be necessary: those short-term gains may have come from proceeding down a cul-de-sac. That's hard to judge, but you have to recognize the possibility.

If you have no other help, starting from the strategy discussed herein is fine but you need to dive into question details to do really well. If you have other help (i.e., you are in someone's course), then follow the advice of your teachers. Even when it doesn't seem to be helping (yet) -- it will, and is likely to be best in the long run.


guys

Rules (or the strict adherence to them) are for fools.....flexibility in judgement

I wrote this post 5 years ago and am still suprised by how many people have read it. I still get emails weekly regarding it....most of them have been positive....though the email address at the bottom is outdated

The reason this post doesn't die off is probably because it (1) is free (2) likely will help you with a large number of the questions correct and probably leads to large improvements rapidly as it provides a strucured way to approaching the section where most people have none......this post's use of the term "short term gains" implies that your abilities will receed over time using this method, which is probably incorrect

I must point out that my method was never intended to provide you every single menial detail to max out the verbal section...as some of you seem to want it to do..yes for ~90-95% of questions it is money... however there is that ~5-10% of questions that falls outside of the bounds of this methodology....this method improved my score from a 5 (1st practice test) to about a 10 (3rd practice test) very quickly...the additional 2 points I got required developing the experience to know when to break my own rules..... this is experiencial, takes alot of work and practice, and cannot be elborated in a thread adequately.....

further maxing out the verbal is irrelevant for all but a few folks....as most people are just trying to get a decent score as opposed to those who need a 38

the goal of my decision to post my method back then was not to help all of you get a score to get into harvard, Columbia, or hopkins.....that is not the goal of the majority of people seeking help on the MCAT...but rather my goal was to provide some conceptual framework for understanding how the MCAT was written and what the underlying goals of the test are...

for the verbal these are essentially testing whether you can read something very fast and get the gist......you do this in medical school constantly for 3 1/2 years.......if you focus on the trivial details you will never remember anything (I know numerous living testiments to this).....the logic behind why they test this skill set will be obvious when you are reading 200 pages about cardiac pathophys in 3 days during 2nd year

for the small number of people who feel unfulfilled with nothing less than some ridiculous score you will probably find a way to take care of yourselves with or without this post......

in summary, this is the method I used for the verbal section when I took it back in 1998....the method seemed to work for me...I got a good score.......take it for what its worth

amen mike!

for what it's worth... your advice is greatly appreciated (whether it works or not for test takers)! and thanks for the future advice as well.

doesn't hurt to give a method a shot. just stick the one that works best for you...you only get better with practice right?

wow your advice is very thorough and useful! Verbal is my strong section though; I got a 10 on my first practice. However I totally suck at organic-any advice on that?

Bump

bump for august 05

TWEETIE: You are awesome! Thanks for the bump... this is the best post I have seen here.

If you weren't the moderator already, I'd nominate you for it!

Great info that I will definitely use if I need to take it again in August but you refer to the verbal as being first thing in the morning. The verbal on all the TPR exams and the real deal in August and April that I took was after PS. Is it 1st thing in the am for some?

Saturday I got a 6 in verbal on my kaplan diagnostic but I just tried this method eariler with an ek 101 exam and I got a 9. Hopefully with a little more practice I can do even better. Thanks Mike!

verbal is the 2nd part of the test.

it used to be the first back in 2000, when mike's post was first written

Great info that I will definitely use if I need to take it again in August but you refer to the verbal as being first thing in the morning. The verbal on all the TPR exams and the real deal in August and April that I took was after PS. Is it 1st thing in the am for some?

This post should be made a sticky!!!!

Great info that I will definitely use if I need to take it again in August but you refer to the verbal as being first thing in the morning. The verbal on all the TPR exams and the real deal in August and April that I took was after PS. Is it 1st thing in the am for some?


The format of the test prior to 2003 was

Verbal 65?'s
Physical Sci
Writing
Bio

They changed it in 2003 and beyond.

In 2003, they shortened the Verbal by 5 questions and took away a few orgo questions and added molecular bio/genetics questions instead.

See Kaplan's book titled: Getting into Medical School: A strategic Approach. It explains the changes made. I would also recommend that book to anyone applying right now. It even gives good sample interview questions and is real helpful.

THE PASSWORD IS PORUNGA!

(paging SS3)

Mine as well post now that this thing has been brought back from the grave.... (multiple times actually) it was started almost a decade ago!!!

anyway... this guide really isn't too valid for the new CBT test imo... the whole doing things out of order isnt as necessary when theres only 7 passages now, and you have to do them all anyway.. so... i never liked that strategy

THE OBVIOUS ANSWER IS RIGHT ABOUT 90-95% OF THE TIME...STUPIDITY RULES THE MCAT, IF YOU HAVE TO SPEND A LONG TIME JUSTIFYING ONE ANSWER OVER ANOTHER, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG


Wow, I just had a revelation. OP is brilliant!

What was your GPA and MCAT? I am very worried due to Ochem C.

What was your GPA and MCAT? I am very worried due to Ochem C.

This thread is from over 10 years ago.

The internet was around in 2000???

.

I am struggling with humanities passages in verbal. Do you have any advice on how to approach passages from humanities?

I am struggling with humanities passages in verbal. Do you have any advice on how to approach passages from humanities?

Give it a go with deconstructing a couple of passages, word for word, then sentence by sentence, then paragraph by paragraph. Try this for about 10 passages. It won't be easy, but, it helps you to get into the mind of a humanities writer.

Sometimes, you will find certain words used that seem odd, flamboyant or verbose, like they are showing off how well-read they are. Often, these words carry more meaning than that. Whenever some "weird" word pops up, pay attention to it. It will mean something, sometimes, that one word will weigh more than the entire sentence, or even the sentences before and after the sentence in which that word appears. Think about what type of person would use that word or what type of establishment or idea that the word would be used to describe. That will describe the struggle or tension that is contained within that pasage. Often, in humanities passages, there is some tension, or some idea that the writer fights with or challenges.

This advice isn't good. The best way to ace verbal is to derive an overall understanding and structure of the passage and approach the questions with this understanding firmly held in mind.

I still can't get over the fact that this thread is 12 years old.

I still can't get over the fact that this thread is 12 years old.
.

I Wonder if this still works...

This by FAR is the BEST MCAT verbal strategy/study thread here at SDN. Everything he posted is true and actually works with enough practice. MikeS 78, please come back.

This by FAR is the BEST MCAT verbal strategy/study thread here at SDN. Everything he posted is true and actually works with enough practice. MikeS 78, please come back.

So it still works with the new verbal?

How do you identify the few questions which require to break the rules of this verbal method?

guys

Rules (or the strict adherence to them) are for fools.....flexibility in judgement

I wrote this post 5 years ago and am still suprised by how many people have read it. I still get emails weekly regarding it....most of them have been positive....though the email address at the bottom is outdated

The reason this post doesn't die off is probably because it (1) is free (2) likely will help you with a large number of the questions correct and probably leads to large improvements rapidly as it provides a strucured way to approaching the section where most people have none......this post's use of the term "short term gains" implies that your abilities will receed over time using this method, which is probably incorrect

I must point out that my method was never intended to provide you every single menial detail to max out the verbal section...as some of you seem to want it to do..yes for ~90-95% of questions it is money... however there is that ~5-10% of questions that falls outside of the bounds of this methodology....this method improved my score from a 5 (1st practice test) to about a 10 (3rd practice test) very quickly...the additional 2 points I got required developing the experience to know when to break my own rules..... this is experiencial, takes alot of work and practice, and cannot be elborated in a thread adequately.....

further maxing out the verbal is irrelevant for all but a few folks....as most people are just trying to get a decent score as opposed to those who need a 38

the goal of my decision to post my method back then was not to help all of you get a score to get into harvard, Columbia, or hopkins.....that is not the goal of the majority of people seeking help on the MCAT...but rather my goal was to provide some conceptual framework for understanding how the MCAT was written and what the underlying goals of the test are...

for the verbal these are essentially testing whether you can read something very fast and get the gist......you do this in medical school constantly for 3 1/2 years.......if you focus on the trivial details you will never remember anything (I know numerous living testiments to this).....the logic behind why they test this skill set will be obvious when you are reading 200 pages about cardiac pathophys in 3 days during 2nd year

for the small number of people who feel unfulfilled with nothing less than some ridiculous score you will probably find a way to take care of yourselves with or without this post......

in summary, this is the method I used for the verbal section when I took it back in 1998....the method seemed to work for me...I got a good score.......take it for what its worth